My ethernet cable which runs from the box in the living room; the big posters around my room are from the giant Corbis photo books that Segura brought us at Ligature 16. I have to re-tape up these posters roughly every 3 days but it’s better than living in a white box. Above the Dutch shoes poster is my Chongas page from the New Times (the NT is a weekly Miami free publication that has breast augmentation and liposuction ads on every page. It also features info about city events other than cosmetic surgery.).

A note on Chongas: Here are 2 links for more info on Chongalcious-ness: Chongalicous Wikipedia
New Times story on Chongas

These girls made this spoof video rewriting the words to Fergie’s song “Fergalicious” into a music video send-up of chonga culture. It’s become a huge success and the girls are local celebrities.

What exactly is a chonga? I’m no expert, but I’ve done some research. (Read the wikipedia page) Basically it’s a style adopted by teen girls in Miami, sort of a rite of passage. I actually met some girls that openly admitted that they were chongas in middle school. They didn’t know it at the time, but it’s obvious to them now. Very interesting.

Back to the map of my room:

“Ricky Martin” (my awesome summer guitar). Next is my “armoir.” Although it theoretically is designed to hold hanging clothes, it functions best in taking up space. When I first moved in, I hung up all 900 pounds of my hanging clothes inside the “armoir.” It was tipsy, but it stood its ground. Fast forward to my night of sleeping in my new appartment >>> suddenly in the middle of the night, I wake up to an avalanche noise. My armoir has fallen on top of me. So I stood it back up in the middle of the night, my heart racing. You think I would have learned my lesson: no. The following night it fell on me again. So I’ve adopted a system of hanging clothes on the doors and draping them. Next: poster of a surviving Zapatista soldier. He inspires for ))))) intensity. My futon bed. My alarm clock that I punch each morning. My window and shady palm tree. My bedside desk where I fall asleep watching the 2 DVDs I brought to Miami: the Life Aquatic, and 1 Seinfeld DVD. I will have these memorized shortly. I would fall asleep without the computer on, but it helps to block the street noise and the living room gatherings just outside my door. Door to my bathroom. Giant doodle poster from a free magazine I got at the Gainesville Xiu Xiu show and a Greg Kletzel doodle on cardboard that I found in the FAC 314 closet. That’s all. It’s small but cozy. And I mostly just crash here.

There’s a street shot of my appartment building. It’s nice. Incredibly close to ))))).

There’s CP+B in Coconut Grove just above United Colors of Benneton. The window to the left of the ))))) logo is an outside room where I sometimes eat my lunch (when not eating at my desk while working). Supposedly 400 people work at ))))) Miami.

Here’s a shot of a restaurant with an outdoor bar and street cafe near ))))). I think it was during week 3 of ))))) that I got off work at 5:30 which felt like a vacation compared to my usual 10pm or later leave time. I was so excited about leaving early that I walked down to this cafe and sat on a big red velvet couch ( they look more comfortable than they are) and read a book. I propped my feet up and dog-sized pidgeons inspected me for food.

Here are some great examples of the mosaic tile work in Coconut Grove. Many of the shops in the Coco Walk area have this tile work everywhere. Even the parking garage.

Miami’s color palette is pretty unique. Pastels by day and neon by night.

Here’s a rocking dinosaur in a park near Coco Walk where I discovered a pretty big skate park. Sometimes on weekends, I bike to the park to watch the skate kids for a while. Today, as I was biking past the park, I heard a drum circle so I had to go check it out. In the shade of a huge red “flamboyant” (picture below) were about 10 middle age people banging on bongos and hand drums. An old man walked up and pulled out a cow bell and a flute.